About a week later, I started it up, and headed to the shop. A couple of blocks later, it started to smoke really badly, and power began to drop off. This continued, getting increasingly worse, until it stalled and would not start. I had it towed to the shop, and the next day, did some checking. It became clear that the injection pump was not pumping. I removed it (which is a really messy job requiring the removal of the oil filter mount), and found I was able remove the auxiliary shaft. Or rather, most of it. It seems the bolt attaching the timing gear to the shaft had worked loose, and at some point the shaft had broken.
I removed the vacuum pump and, yep, the timing gear was all loosey-goosey. The bolt was mangled. I went to my local U-Pull-And-Pay, and there was a 126 there with the IP already removed. Nice! All the really messy work was already done. I removed the vacuum pump and got the shaft and bolt for all of $15. 4-hours later, I was back on the road, with the cam timing all confirmed, and black arms up past my elbows.
All was good for about two weeks when on a run up to Brighton (about 30-miles), it started to run funny. It wouldn't idle, smoked badly, and was down on power. It made it back to the shop, and I just left it there. I'd run it now and then, hoping the trouble would go away; maybe it it got a bad tank of fuel, but even a fresh fill didn't cure it. It didn't get any worse; didn't get any better. I figured the IP was dead.
Last Thursday, I had a slow point at the shop, and decided, "This is the day." I again removed the IP, and found it was about 2-teeth off, retarded. Part of me wanted to go the the salvage yard and get another IP, but the part that said, "Just put it back together, maybe it'll be all right" won out, and that's what I did. This time, it took two hours to re-assemble it, but that's all that was needed. It's running really, REALLY well now.
So, I don't know why the bolt came loose in the first place. Nor, why it ran fine for two weeks, then the IP slipped. But I'm back to driving it every day again. We'll see how long it will last....
I can see why people can get frustrated with these cars, and give up. If I were to charge for all I've done in just the past four months, it would have been a fair amount, probably not worth getting it done. As it was, it cost me a minimal in parts, a couple of quarts of oil, and probably 12-hours. Certainly, if this car belonged to most anyone else, it would have been scrapped.
It has just passed 332,000 miles, which isn't that much, considering it's now over 35-years old. That's less than 10,000 miles a year. If it's still running well in six-weeks, I'll shoot on new paint, with new windshield and gasket. Then, it will be time to sell it. I'm putting together a diesel Jeep XJ.
From: "bgiovan@cavtel.net [diesel_mercedes]" <diesel_mercedes@yahoogroups.com>
To: "diesel mercedes" <diesel_mercedes@yahoogroups.com>
Sent: Monday, September 22, 2014 3:30:30 PM
Subject: RE: [diesel_mercedes] Hi Ben !
Brian told me I was being insolent by not checking in with the group! So, I apologize. Been really busy with 'stuff. Bought a GM 6.5L diesel Suburban a few years ago, had my way with it and am trying to sell it now. Moved on to a 2014 Ram Megacab Cummins earlier this year to haul the trailer and well, those both required me to cheat on my first love, you all, and spend time on thetruckstop.us and cumminsforum.com. But I still have the old girl and drive her around from time to time. Bought my 12 year old a '67 Mustang Coupe which will be a complete restoration job. So not sure how much time I'll have to dedicate to the Mercedes. But she'll sit for a couple months, I'll go over glow her once and fires up like no one's business. You never forget (or completely get over) your first love.
Ben near Detroit
